Reed and shuttle driving apparatus for a progressively shedding type loom



4 Sheets-Sheet 1 H. FEND PROGRESSIVELY SHEDDING TYPE LOOM REED ANDSHUTTLE DRIVING APPARATUS FOR A March 22, 1966 Filed July 15, 1963 M xxMarch 22, 1966 H. FEND 3,241,573

REED AND SHUTTLE DRIVING APPARATUS FOR A PROGRESSIVELY SHEDDING TYPELOOM 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 15, 1963 mm W March 22, 1966 H FE3,241,573

ND REED AND SHUTTLE DRIVING APPARATUS FOR A PROGRESSIVELY SHEDDING TYPELOOM Filed July 16, 1963 4 $heecs-Sheet :3

March 22, 1966 H. FEND REED AND SHUTTLE DRIVING APPARATUS FOR Arnoeamssxvwz SHEDDING TYPE LOOM 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July 15, 1963 M ME $5 A fm m mr a 6 mm W n?" m m z WH 1 a 3 I 227 NI l q W w UnitedStates Patent 3,241,573 REED AND SHUTTLE DRIVING APPARATUS FOR APROGRESSIVELY SHEDDING TYPE LOOM Heinrich Fend, Zurich, Switzerland,assignor to Verwaltungsgeseilschaft der WerlizeugmaschinenfabrikOeriilion, Zurieh-Oerlilron, Switzerland Filed July 15, 1963, Ser. No.294,958 Claims priority, application Switzerland, July 23, 1962, 8,79762 3 Claims. (Cl. I39-12) The invention relates to beat-up means forprogressive shedding looms with a plurality of exchangeable shuttledriving members lying side by side and distributed over the whole widthof the warp. On each member there is attached a group of reed teeth forbeating up the weft thread, the reed teeth of all groups having aconstant dent over the whole width of the beat-up assembly. It is thenimportant, that by exchanging the individual shuttle driving membershaving a certain number of reed teeth against others having a difierentnumber of teeth it is made possible to utilize a great many differentwarp densities in such a manner that the number of warp threads between.any two adjacent feed teeth remains constant over the whole width ofthe weave.

With known beatup devices of the kind referred to which have anelectromagnetic drive of the shuttles, the groups of reed teeth have awidth, and accordingly their driving members have also a uniform widthor pitch, in the order of magnitude of 1.9685 inches. With such a widthit is easily possible to grade the number of reed teeth per group finelyenough to accommodate a large range of warp densities.

For progressive shedding looms, in which the same driving membersmechanically drive the shuttles as well as the groups of reed teeth forbeating up the weft thread, such a pitch is unsuitable, as will beexplained hereinafter.

In progressive shedding looms of ordinary width of about 5 feet to 6.5feet it is usual to drive about 6 to 8 shuttles simultaneously throughthe warp one behind the other, with as many individual travelling shedsformed by their driving members. With shuttles driven in such a manner,about a dozen of driving members continuously relieving one another areengaged simultaneously on the shuttle. An even larger number of drivingmembers outside the region of a shuttle serve to, inter alia, beating-upthe weft thread just laid in a traveling shed which is between 10 inchesto inches in length. Assuming about forty driving members for eachtravelling shed, the length of such a shed having the usual width of1.9685 inches would amount to about 6.56 feet, i.e., six to eight timesas much as permissible in the usual loom.

The object of the invention consists in providing a beat-up device forprogressive shedding looms with a common mechanical drive for theshuttles and the reed having narrow exchangeable packets of reed teethto allow a variety of warps having a great variety of densities to beused with a constant number of warp threads between any two adjacentreed teeth.

For purposes of clarity the term progressive shed is limited to thesheds formed across the width of the warp and the term wave is intendedto include those areas of the warp in which a shed is formed and thereed and drive means involved in functioning in each formed shed and theundulating configuration through which they and the warp threads move.

With this and other objects in view, which will become apparent laterfrom this specification and the accompanying drawings, I provide abeat-up device for progressive shedding looms, comprising incombination: a fixed casing, a plurality of shuttle drive members lyingside by side distributed over the whole width of the warp, and guided onsaid casing, a group of reed teeth mounted on each of said drive membersfor beating up the weft thread, the reed teeth being uniformly spacedover the whole width of the warp and the individual groups of reed teethdiffering from one another in their number of reed teeth, and drivingmeans mounted on said casing in operation reciprocating said memberswith a mutual ofiset corresponding to the wave or shed shape.

In this manner any densities of warp threads can be taken into account,since the quotient of the sum of all Warp threads and that of alldriving members need no longer be a whole number, such as ihitherto,which restricted considerably the number of the various warp densitieshitherto usable.

In addition to a figure for the explanation of various relations, anembodiment of a beat-up device for a flat weaving machine, and amodification of a beat-up device according to the invention areillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation in section of a beatup device with theshuttle drive, and with the shuttle in the weaving shed, some componentslying further back being omitted;

FIGURE 2 shows the same arrangement in front elevation with the casingbroken away and with the reed teeth partly broken oif;

FIGURE 3 is a plan view showing diagrammatically the driving memberswith the reed teethpartly broken olt in their positions offset waveshape in the form of one travelling wave length;

FIGURE 4 diagrammatically shows three groups of reed teeth with equalnumbers of teeth according to the prior art, for the explanation ofvarious relations;

FIGURE 5 diagrammatically shows in elevation five groups of reed teethhaving different numbers of teeth according to the invention;

FIGURE 6 diagrammatically shows a modification of six groups of reedteeth having different numbers of reed teeth;

FIGURE 7 illustrates a detail of FIGURE 1 upon an enlarged scale; and

FIGURE 8 is a View illustrating two consecutively ararngedcross-sections as indicated by the section lines VIII.

In FIGURE 1, on a shaft 9 and 9a, respectively, sets 3 and 4 of camdiscs are fitted by means of keys 10 and 10a, respectively which camdiscs are individually denoted 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d etc. and 4a, 4b, 4c, 4detc. in FIGURE 1 and are arranged one behind the other, each of thesecam discs being angularly offset a certain amount on the shaft 9 and 9a,respectively, relative to the subsequent cam disc. On an axle 6, levers1 with rollers 2 are mounted pivotally independently of each other,those levers individually denoted 1a, 1b, 10 etc. with a roller 2a, 2b,2c etc. journalled on a pin 5a, 5b, 50 respectively being arrangedbetween each cooperating pair of discs such as 3a and 4a, 3b and 4b, 3cand 40 etc. of the discs, respectively.

A plurality of slides 7, consisting of individual slides such as 7a, 7b,7c constructed as members for driving and completely guiding theshuttles 16, are guided predominantly in the direction of the warps inslots 8 lying side by side. These slots 8 are arranged in the casing 32.In the casing 32 there is a cut-out from below extending over the lengthB, through which the levers I reach upward into the slots 8 and whereinthey are guided laterally. On the levers I slider blocks 11 are mounted,which have the same width as the levers I themselves and are each guidedin the same slot as the associated lever.

These levers 1 engage with said Sliders blocks 11 from below into arecess of the individual slides 7.

The sets of cam discs 3, 4 are so constructed that, upon synchronousrotation of the two shafts 9 and 90, they are permanently in contactwithout any play with the rollers 2, and move the slides 7 by means ofthe levers 1 in an identical manner but with a phase offset inaccordance with a predetermined law defining the slope of the travellingshed, toand-fro from a rear end position to a forward beat-up position.A dovetailshaped slot 13 extending transversely of the slots 8 over thefull extent of the casing 32 serves for accommodating a ledge 12, whichin turn holds all the slides 7 in the slots 8.

The slides 7 carry, as shown in FIGURE 1, at their left hand side ends aforked projection 14 having a recess 15. An arcuate shuttle 16 engageswith its likewise arcuate lower rib 2i] and its two flanks 21 and 31(FIGURE 3) into a sickle-shaped guide formed by the recesses of theforked projections of a plurality of slides 7, which guides represents awave trough as viewed from the fell 26 Within the wave shape of themutually offset recesses 15.

A convenient shape of the travelling wave is illustrated in FIGURE 3.The shape shown repeats itself any time after an angular offset of 360of the cam discs so that permanently five to eight of such waves areformed. The travelling waves thus formed by the projections 14 proceedin one or the other direction transversely of the warp threads dependingon the sense of rotation, and thus carry along the shuttle l6 lying inthe wave trough facing the fell 26. Each shuttle 16 is in engagementonly with a predetermined number of slides 7, namely with those, whichactually form the trough of the wave, and has for this purpose a concaveformation of the driving and guiding surfaces.

In addition to the projection 14 group 27 of reed teeth 22 is mounted oneach slide which group is held together by means of a connecting member23. Each of the slides 7 together with its group 27 of reed teeth isexchangeable, for which purpose however firstly the ledge 12 and thecover 38 are to be removed. The warp threads 25 enclosing the shuttlerun between the individual reed teeth 22 to the fell 26 and thus formthe weaving shed, in which the shuttle is held by the slides 7 and theirprojections 14, respectively. The individual reed teeth 22 are moreoverconnected at their upper ends by outer connecting members 24. The reedteeth 22 serve to beating-up the weft thread into the fell 26 in theforward beating-up position of the slides 7, in which the projections 14have emerged from the weaving shed.

As will be seen in FIGURE 3, owing to the favourable shape of theshuttle 16 and to the compact shape of the travelling wave it ispossible, to let the slides stand still in the forward beating-upposition for a short while, in order to attain in this manner afavourable binding in of the freshly inserted weft thread.

The weft thread 28 is stored in a cavity in the shuttle to be deliveredtherefrom to the fell of the fabric during operation. In order to keepthe shuttle small, preferably only a storage of weft threadcorresponding to one pick is accommodated therein.

As shown in FIGURE 7 the entire length of the side 21 of the shuttle 16contacts the rear edge 19 of the recess in the projection 14 and alsothe forward edge 18 of the recess of the projection contacts the flank31 of the shuttle. Since the two edges 18 and 1% converge upwardly, therecesses 15 diverge downwardly. Since the rib 20 has a profilecorresponding to the recesses 15, the shuttle, which rests with itsunderside on the upper edges of the projections 14, is firmly guided inthese projections, so that it can move only laterally in accordance withthe movement of the slides 7.

In FIGURE 3 the slide 7:: is at the rear dead centre position and isaccordingly for a moment at a standstill.

All the sldes located to the left in FIGURE 3 move towards the left inthe direction of the arrow, some of the forward edges 18 of the recessesof projections 14 cooperating with the mounting member of drivingsurface 51, which is inclined relative to the driving direction, andshift the shuttle 16 in FIGURE 3 downwardly. Similarly, all the slides,which in FIGURE 3 lie to the right of the slide 7a and which are not yetin the forward beating-up position, move in the opposite direction orforward, some of their rear edges cooperate with the driving surface 52of shuttle 16 to push it downwardly in FIGURE 3. The straight lineguidance of the shuttle on a track parallel to the fill 26 is taken careof only by the slides, which are in motion, thereby that the rear edges19 of these projections lying below the slide 7a cooperate with theguide surface 53, and the forward edges 18 of these slides lying abovethe slide 752 cooperate with a second guide surface 54.

All the groups of reed teeth 27 of all the slides 7 taken together form,as it were, a reed extending over the whole width of the warp and movingin a wave-shape, the dents between the reed teeth 22 being identicalacross the width of the beat-up assembly. Also the slides carrying thegroups of reed teeth 27 have predominantly a constant width or pitch.The number of warp threads 25 drawn in between any two adjacent reedteeth may differ depending on the spacing of the warp or for otherreasons.

Hereinafter the relations applicable in general between the valuesmentioned will be explained with reference to FIGURE 4:

The characters used hereinafter have the following meaning:

S pitch, or mean pitch, respectively, of the slides in inches.

Z:dent size or the spacing between the reed teeth in inches.

K number of warp threads per inch of the width of the weave.

E number of warp threads between any two adjacent reed teeth.

T number of reed teeth per group of reed teeth mounted on a slide.

S'=pitch of a formation in inches.

T total number of teeth per formation.

A number of reed teeth groups per formation.

It will be readily seen that under the assumption of a uniform pitch ofslides:

Considering the number of warp threads per group of reed teeth, thereexists the relation:

Hence:

wherein T as the number of teeth must be a whole number.

In an ordinary wave or progressive shed weaving machine for cotton, thenumber of warp threads per 0.3937 inch amounts to about 20 to 60, whilethe number of warp threads between any two adjacent reed teeth variesbetween 1 and 3. Assuming for example E 2 and S:0.l968 inch. From thisit follows that Since T must be a whole number, the assumption of aconstant number of warp threads between any two adjacent reed teethimplies necessarily the use of warps having a number of warps per inch Kwhich is a whole number multiple of four, ie for example warps having afigure of K 20 in conjunction with a number of reed teeth per group T:5as according to FIGURE 4.

5, If for the same figure of E=2 the pitch of the slides S is four timeslarger, namely 0.7874 inch, it follows that so that with such a pitch ofthe slides all warps having whole numbers of warp threads per inch arepermissible for a uniform number of warp threads between any twoadjacent reed teeth. A pitch of the slides 5:0.7874 inch is, however,undesirable in view of its detrimental effect on the shape of thetravelling waves and. on the size of the shuttles.

In FIGURE 5 any two consecutive groups of reed teeth 27 constitute aformation repeating itself all over the width of the weave, theindividual groups of reed teeth having numbers of reed teeth differingfrom one another. For example one of the two groups of reed teeth of aformation has six, and the other has seven reed teeth.

With a mean slide pitch of S=0.1968 inch there results a pitch offormation S'=2 S=0.3937 inch. For the total number of teeth of oneformation and a number of warps per interstice between consecutive reedteeth E=2 there results accordingly the following relation:

For a number of warps per 0.3937 inch of K=26 for example there results13 for a formation, or as stated, 'six teeth for one group of reedteeth, and seven for the other group of the formation. Accordingly, witha beatup device according to FIGURE 5 all the warps having an evennumber per 0.3937 inch may be used with a uniform number of warp threadsin the said interstices of the reed teeth, i.e. twice as many differentwarps as with devices according to the prior art.

FIGURE 5 shows that the individual groups of reed teeth must havedifferent lateral positions relative to their associated driving membersi.e. to their slides in order to permit a regular pitch of the slides.

In FIGURE 6, which shows a modified embodiment by way of example, anyfour consecutive groups of reed teeth 27 form an analogous formation,three groups of each formation having five, and any fourth group havingsix reed teeth. Per formation there results, with a mean pitch of theslides of S=0.1968 inch, a pitch of formations of S'=4S=0.7874 inch. Forthe total number of teeth T of one formation there results, with afigure of E=2, the relation:

i.e. with an arrangement according to FIGURE 6 any warp having a wholenumber of warp threads per 0.3937 inch may be used. For example with anumber of warp threads K:21 per 0.3937 inch the total number of reedteeth T' of a formation is likewise 21, i.e. as illustrated in FIGURE 6,any three groups of reed teeth of a formation have five, and the fourthhas six reed teeth. With a uniform number of warp threads per intersticeand a pitch of the slides corresponding to practical requirements itsufiices accordingly, if a number of consecutive groups of reed teeth ofa number of teeth differing from one another forms re-current formationof identical kind over the whole width of the weave and it issufficient, if the numbers of teeth of the various groups of reed teethdiffer not more than one tooth for the same number of warps per 0.3937inch. For a figure of E=2 and a pitch of the slides of S =0.1968 inchthe permissible number of groups of reed teeth constituting a formationamounts to a maximum of four.

It should be emphasized that even more formations suitable for practicalpurposes may be formed in which for narrow pitches of the slides anywarps having a whole number of warp threads per 0.3937 inch ispermissible with a uniform number of warp threads per interstice. Whenit is required that L K A then necessarily S/E=1, and S'=E. Since thepitch of the formations S is equal to the product of the number A ofgroups of reed teeth groups per formation by the mean pitch of theslides, there results:

For E=2, e.g., A=3 and S=2/3 of 0.3937 inch, or A=6 and S=1/3 of 0.3937inch, while for E=3, A=5 and S=.2362 inch is permissible, or A =6 andS=0.1968 inch.

Moreover it is obviously possible to make arrangements which permit aneven finer sub-division of the warps per inch. In such a case forexample T=2K or =3K, etc., i.e.

respectively, such as for E=2, A=6 and 8:2/3 inches, or A=9 and S=2/3inches.

1 claim:

1. A beat-up device for the weft thread in progressive shedding loomswith a short wave length comprising in combination a fixed casing, aplurality of shuttle drive members lying side by side distributed overthe whole width of said beat-up device, means guiding said members onsaidv casing, reed teeth uniformly spaced over the whole width of thewarp, a group of reed teeth mounted on each of said drive members forbeating-up the weft thread, said groups of reed teeth differing from oneanother in their lateral position relative to their associated drivemember, said groups of reed teeth differing from one another in theirnumber of reed teeth whereby formations of consecutive groups of reedteeth of different numbers of reed teeth will recur identically over thewhole width of the warp, and driving means mounted on said casingreciprocating said members with a mutual offset corresponding to theWave shape.

2. A beat-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the maximum number ofsaid consecutive groups of reed teeth constituting a formation amountsto four.

3. A beat-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the maximumdifference in the number of teeth of said groups of reed teeth amountsto one for the same number of warp threads per unit length.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 720,181 2/1903Salisbury 139-12 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,237,034 6/ 1960 France. 1,072,56912/1959 Germany.

522,814 4/1955 Italy.

DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner.

1. A BEAT-UP DEVICE FOR THE WEFT THREAD IN PROGRESSIVE SHEDDING LOOMSWITH A SHORT WAVE LENGTH COMPRISING IN COMBINATION A FIXED CASING, APLURALITY OF SHUTTLE DRIVE MEMBERS LAYING SIDE BY SIDE DISTRIBUTED OVERTHE WHOLE WIDTH OF SAID BEAT-UP DEVICE, MEANS GUIDING SAID MEMBERS ONSAID CASING, REED TEETH UNIFORMLY SPACED OVER THE WHOLE WIDTH OF THEWARP, A GROUP OF REED TEETH MOUNTED ON EACH OF SAID DRIVE MEMBERS FORBEATING-UP THE WEFT THREAD, SAID GROUPS OF REED TEETH DIFFERING FROM ONEANOTHER IN THEIR LATERAL POSITION RELATIVE TO THEIR ASSOCIATED DRIVEMEMBER, SAID GROUPS OF REED TEETH DIFFERING FROM ONE ANOTHER IN THEIRNUMBER OF REED TEETH WHEREBY FORMATIONS OF CONSECUTIVE GROUPS OF REEDTEETH OF DIFFERENT